Is It Luck or Hard Work and Skill?

The next day, we got up and went out searching, which will be the normal beginning of our days for a while.  We saw some ibex, but no sign of cats.  I thought I got pictures of the herd, but apparently that's a different day and a different herd that I'm remembering because there are no pictures of ibex in this day's folders.

Just before lunch, we got a call that a "kill" had been spotted, so we packed up and headed that direction.  The trackers had gotten there and had pictures, checking out the kill, and determined (and Bina confirmed) that it was, indeed, a snow leopard kill.  Apparently, a herder saw two goats up on the rocks last night and decided to go up and retrieve them this morning if they didn't come down.  I'm not sure why he didn't go after them when he saw them since they know snow leopards are in the area and that snow leopards only attack on the rocks.  Now that I re-read that, maybe I DO understand why the herder didn't go into the rocks!  Anyway, this morning, he went out to retrieve them and one had been killed and the other was stuck in a crevice from trying to run.  The herder went up and tried to save the stuck one, but it ended up falling to its death.  Instead of trying to hunt down the snow leopard that killed his goats, the herder called up one of our trackers and let them know what happened.  Based on past behavior, the leopard isn't expected to come out to feed again during the day, especially with the herder close.  So we went back to camp for lunch and to bring lunch back to the trackers while they stayed in the area to watch for the snow leopard.

While at camp, we learned that our flight from Ulaistai to Ulaanbaatar was cancelled and unable to be rescheduled.  This meant we would have to give up on potentially seeing the Eurasian lynx, which would be a long shot anyway, but we add back the Przewalski horse and Saiga antelope.

After a quick lunch, we returned where we left the trackers, and the snow leopard had come out to sun himself.  He was far, far away.  He was even difficult to see through the 60X Swarovski spotting scope, but see him we absolutely did!  It was exciting!  While we were standing around in the sun, I got hot, so I took off my parka.  You would have thought I grew another head!  These tough Mongolian men, accustomed to the western, mountainous steppe in early spring, in layers with traditional deels, and I'm stripping off my parka.  Keep in mind that I'm still wearing my merino wool base layer and my sweater.  There's no wind; the sun is out; and it's probably just above freezing.  And I might have a touch of POTS, so my autonomic nervous system was having some difficulty with the lack of activity and being on my feet.

We tried to move to what should be a better vantage point, but it would be difficult to get there.  We agreed to give it a try.  With assistance, I was able to make it up about halfway, but when we had to make the turn to go up the edge, a little fear of heights hit my companion, and we ended up coming back down.  By the time we got down, the trackers had found an even better vantage point that was easy to get to and at the same altitude as our leopard so we headed over there.

For some reason, we couldn't get the ball head on my tripod to hold well, so we're stuck with the limitations of my abilities, which include my tremor.  It was awesome!  The trackers and guides were all just as excided as we were at seeing this guy.  Apparently, he's a large boy with a scar over his nose.  They call him Scarface, and they've only ever seen him on trail cameras until now.  He was just on the next hilltop.  Estimates of distance are about 400 meters, but the admission from everybody is that nobody is really very good at judging distance.  I used a crop sensor camera with a 150-600 mm lens and a 2x teleconverter, so I got a distance of 1200 mm plus whatever the math works out to when factoring in the crop sensor.  Plus, I cropped into these further.

He spent most of the day, snuggled up like this.  He wasn't concerned about us at all.

He made it obvious that he knew we were there by periodically raising his head and looking at us.

Sometimes, he had a lick and yawn.

The trackers mounted a cell phone holder to the Swarovski 60x scope, and got even better looks when also zooming in on the phone cameras.  Here's a video they took on my phone.  Galaxy S24.  The 60x is estimated to be around 1200mm, and the S24 has a 30x zoom, so from what I can understand (and I could be wrong), that would be around 1500mm.  Somebody who knows this stuff can fill me in if they want.

Back to my shot of him looking at us.  No concern at all in his beautiful blue eyes!

At one point, a bird flew over and caught his attention.

At one point, he rolled over, giving us the "back of disdain".

As it started getting night, he stood up and gave us a long look

and headed to the other side of the hill without even saying, "Goodbye!"  Sorry about the shakiness.  My tremor was getting worse because I was tired and cold.  Yes, I had put my coat back on long before and the sun was going down.

When we got back to camp, it was dark, and people were talking about how lucky we were to see him.  After thinking about it a little bit, I had to argue that it wasn't really luck.  Bina and Yumchin, the principals of Soaring Expeditions, have worked very hard to set trail cameras, train the trackers, develop relationships with the herders and other community members, and studied the activities of the local fauna for many years.  The trackers have grown their skill over the years, too.  Without all of that work and dedication, the herder wouldn't have even thought about calling us.  Without all of that work, the trackers wouldn't have known how to watch for him to come out and what radial area he may come out into.  Without all of that work, nobody would have a clue of how Scarface may act.  And without knowledge of the terrain and how to move around without spooking him, the trackers never would have been able to locate that good viewing vantage point.  I contend that there was more skill involved than luck on our ability to see our first snow leopard.  The guys humbly agreed.  After dinner, we all headed to our respective gers with warm fuzzies to accompany the fires.  I don't know about everybody else, but I dreamed of more cats!

Heading Out for Cats!

Up bright and early for a long drive out to the snow leopard camp.  I managed to get a shot of the giant traditional boot on the way out of Khovd.

It wasn't long before we turned off the paved road, onto what passes in Mongolia as a road.  I had trouble seeing that road, and there were multiple choices of paths one could take.  Often, when you could see the "road", it was time for drivers to choose a different route to take.  Over time, I came to realize that in Mongolia, what passes as a "road" is more like a "concept of a road!"  Bruce, I've never asked you to navigate this type of area!

For the longest time, it was just plain, barren ground.  Bina said it would get green once it warmed up.  There were ice and snow patches that would melt to make water on the dirt, and there were a few spots where a patch had melted and there was some green.  Not much, but some.  There were some small birds that were impossible to photograph.  Bina said they were horned lark or Mongolian lark, with the horned lark being most prevalent.  We did see a sand grouse, but it flew away before I could get an identifiable shot.  After a while (a couple of hours), we came across a herd of camel.  Livestock herds here are camel, cattle, horses, and goats.

We also drove past what appeared to be deposits of bentonite, similar to the Bentonite Hills in Utah.  I found resources that indicated bentonite is found in the Gobi, but we were on the Western Steppe.  The fact that nobody has documented it in this inhospitable land doesn't mean it's not there.  But it could easily be another mineral causing these colors.

About halfway through, around lunch time, we found some pavement for a few kilometers.  That gave us an opportunity to stop for gas and grab some snacks from the back of the car.  We saw lots more livestock, including goats, cattle, and horses.  I only took pix of the goats crossing the road. 

At some point, after we passed a tire on the ground, we turned off the pavement, down the embankment (which wasn't small), and back on the concepts of roads.  This would be the last pavement we would see for several days.  I was so surprised at leaving the road like we did that I didn't even think to snap a picture!  I have to admit that, while I never stopped being amused by it, I did grow accustomed to road signs being replaced with tires and animal skulls with beer bottles or pieces of fabric sticking out of them.  And somehow, these guys knew where they were going - which tire, which animal skull, which shrub  to turn at.  The closest we came to getting lost was one of them deciding that we should be on the track next to us.  After another several hours, we pulled into our ger (yurt) camp.  I didn't take a camp shot this time.  I took one on almost the last night when we came in from looking for wildlife, so the lighting on it is much different than these.  I did get some shots of parts of the camp including the rock formation that looks a little like a snow leopard!

 

These guys with Soaring Expeditions are awesome.  They rent the gers from local herders and members of the closest community.  They also hire locally.  When we arrived, we settled in, had dinner, and got ready for our first day out.  I didn't take pictures inside my ger until the second night, but I'm going to go ahead and show you the inside now.

My ger had a little page that had 10 interesting fact about the Mongolian ger.  This included statements about what some parts stand for, the direction they are oriented, the fact that they are one of the oldest housing forms, and that the traditional gers are made with no nails or screws.  In fact, the ger I was staying in was mostly tied together, but you could tell that more recent repairs were made with screws.

Heat escaped through the top, and the smoke escaped through the chimney from the wood/coal stove.  My ger also had lots of decorations on the wood in the ceiling.

We did have a chemical toilet, so I didn't need to go outside if I needed to go.

As you can see, I had already exploded around my ger.  I had two beds and a table in my ger.  I also had a sink and a mirror that was just high enough to reflect my boobs every morning while I was brushing my teeth!  We had a light bulb that was run from a battery, and once Yumchin returned with the Starlink, we had wifi while the generator was running.  We did not have showers, but I brought wipes and could heat water on the wood stove.  I was also wearing merino wool, which is good for eating stink.

All the time leading up to this trip, I was afraid I was going to get cold, but the ger was definitely well heated.  I actually had to ask the guy who kept the fire going to skip a time or two.  It was so hot, I had to sleep over the covers until the fire burned down.  I slept well, though.

Up the next morning and headed out for our first search.  The trackers headed out before we had breakfast, so they were already searching.  When we headed out, Bina would take the spotting scope out and our driver would take binoculars and search along the rocks in the next slope.  We always searched from far away and then determined the best way to get as close as we safely could.  We saw an ibex (which I missed), and then got a call from the trackers that they had Pallas' cat.  So, off we went.  We sat in the car and waited for him to come out of his burrow.  Here is my first good look at him!

They live in burrows that they take over when marmots move out, and they eat gerbils.  He turned and looked all directions, and at one point, a falcon swooped down and grabbed the only gerbil we saw.  We have to take away his vicious cat card, because when the falcon came, the cat jumped back down into his burrow.  Of course, the falcon is about the same size as the cat!  Pallas' cat is about the size of an average house cat, about 6-10 lbs and 18-26 inches.  They are soooo fluffy, too!  I got lots of pictures, but he never came out of his burrow, so I'll show different sides of his head, including when he was looking behind.

It's hard to see the back of his head.

and when he was looking in my direction

But mostly, he just had the top of his head out and his eyes.

After lunch, we went back out.  We checked a different area, and we found an upland buzzard,

elk

ibex,

bearded vulture,

and another Pallas's cat walking along the top of the rocks.  Nobody got any pictures of him before he went on the other side.

When I started trying to load my pictures into Lightroom and see what I had, I learned that my tablet wouldn't recognize the .CR3 files that are the raw shots from the Canon.  Remind me again to never travel without my laptop!  It was very difficult not knowing what I'm getting!  

Another person joined us in camp today, too.  She's from Hong Kong and will be guided by Yumchin.  She had been to see snow leopards before in the Altai Mountains, but wanted to get closer looks.  Apparently, the Margaz Mountains (where we are) are a much better place to see them than the Altai are, which is what Bina had told me when we decided to make the itinerary flexible.  

It was a very good sign that on our first day out, we saw cats!  An awesome start!

Welcome to Mongolia!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and I sat around and tried to upload my photos and write my journal.  I made the decision to make this trip without my laptop, and I was already starting to regret that choice.  Typing on the screen keyboard isn't easy, and the mobile apps are less consistent than the same programs on the computer hard drive.  Not to mention, I bought the tablet for a completely different purpose, and it isn't as fast or strong as I anticipate when working with photos or journaling.  But, it's too late now.  I've left home without my computer, so just make the best of it.  I got the journaling done (of which half of this entry was lost by the time I got home and started writing the blog), and most of the pictures loaded (after 3 tries) and uploaded to the cloud, and we made our plane to Ulaanbaatar on time.  I had redundant saving with me on a large, brand new SD card and a 1TB external hard drive, so anything that didn't load to Lightroom Mobile on the tablet, was still available.

We landed around 2:00 am-ish, and as promised, we had a driver waiting for us when we cleared customs.  My companion had to get the cash out, again, as I still had no way to access cash, but we weren't likely to need any cash until after the snow leopard camps unless we chose to go to town during our day at the hotel.  We got in the taxi and headed for the hotel.  When we got to a cross roads, the driver pointed out the city lights for Ulaanbaatar and turned the other direction.  Our hotel was supposed to be secluded and a good place for birding, so that wasn't unexpected.  After a while, we turned off the paved roads, and started down barely visible dirt roads.  The driver kept calling someone and turning around, obviously lost.  I didn't check time, but we must have traversed these areas for at least an hour.  My phone battery was running down, so I only took one picture.  

We sat in the back, quietly cutting up, and discussing which horror movie it was most like.  I always send Bruce and Chrissy a message when I board a flight, when I land, and when I get to the hotel, and we have daily "proof of life" message requirements when one of us is traveling.  Plus Bruce likes to track me on Life 360 when I'm gone.  So, I sent a couple of tongue-in-cheek texts to Bruce, who kept asking me the name of the hotel we were going to, and I couldn't remember it and didn't really have enough battery to look it up.  My idiot self didn't even think about grabbing one of those extra chargers out of my camera bag and plugging my phone in!  I told him I thought the cabbie was lost, and his answer was, "I know." Apparently, he had been tracking the whole debacle.  But it was a fun adventure, and suddenly, our driver pulled back out onto the pavement for a few seconds and off onto a different dirt road - this one with a sign that pointed to the Mongolica Hotel and Resort.  When we arrived, we were escorted up to our room, basically the penthouse suite.  Color me impressed!

I sent this video to Bruce and told him we had made it to our hotel, and his response was, "Charge your phone!"  Nothing about glad I wasn't Mongolia Chainsaw'ed or anything like that.  Just the instruction to charge my phone.  Anyway, I plugged my phone in, unpacked the CPAP, and fell asleep.

I woke the next morning around 9:30 and went downstairs, still in my nightgown, which can double as a long, black dress in a pinch (or not in such a pinch, and I'm just lazy).  This place has a pretty swank restaurant, but the guy said he'd bring breakfast up to us and confirmed that the water is not potable so would need to be boiled in the kettle if we didn't drink the bottles.  I got a message from the guys from Soaring Adventures to enjoy the day around the hotel, and that the driver would be back for us at 4:00 am the following morning to take us back to the airport where we would meet Bina, one of the principals and our tour guide.  I took absolute advantage of a day that I didn't have to get dressed and read my book while looking out the windows.  And the view from the window was good.  There were some birds, a herd of untamed domestic horses (that's an important distinction here), and a couple of kitty cats.  And I did some laundry, washing our traveling clothes.

A nice, early night to bed, and up bright and early to meet our taxi driver at 4:00 am for the ride back to the airport.  He didn't get lost this time.  He even joked about knowing the way this time!  And we met Bina at the check-in for our flight to Khovd.  The first thing I learned is that his name is pronounced with a long I.  I had been pronouncing the I as a long E, so that's going to take some getting used to.

I got called back for luggage inspection.  I had to open my suitcase to show them that what they thought was a whip was actually my tripod, and what they thought were small batteries (that aren't allowed in checked bags) was hand warmers.  We talked for a bit and learned that the mama snow leopard they had been watching was still there with her three cubs, who are now about one year old and will stay with her until they're two.  And we were going to Khovd, where we will drive over and meet an eagle hunter tonight and then head to the snow leopard camp in the morning.

We got settled onto the plane - and then came back off because of a "technical issue".  Personally, I'm glad they found it and fixed it.  While we were waiting in the airport, Bina gave us some cultural information, animal preservation/conservation,  language information, and pretty much any information we asked for.  He said it's only a 2 hour drive from Khovd to the eagle hunter, so we should be fine.  We went to the "Nice to CU" store and got some snacks.  We had fun trying to properly pronounce the town we were going to, and eventually reboarded our plane and were on our way.

Upon arrival, we met our driver, who took us to our hotel, where we checked in and had lunch.  Then we headed to Polbo, about a 2-hour drive, just as promised.  It was a pleasant drive and pretty scenery.

This statuary was just on the way out of town

One of the only signs of civilization between Khovd and Polbo, fronting a beautiful rock hill.

Lots of goat crossing signs

I especially liked this one

We went through part of the Altai Mountains

And skirted the highest peak, Tsambagarav, with an elevation of just under 4,200 m (13,500 ft).

When we reached Polbo, we met 69-year-old Leikham, a seventh-generation Cossack-Mongolian eagle hunter.  And just now, while writing this, I'm realizing that he may have been saying Kazakh-Mongolian instead of Cossack-Mongolian, which would make much more sense, since we were quite close to Kazakhstan.  These are two very different cultural groups, and Kazakh fits much better with a nomadic eagle hunter than the Russian warrior Cossack does.  Anyway, I digress.

We learned quite a bit about eagle hunting.  They catch them wild, preferably as fledglings or stolen directly from the nests, but sometimes trapping older birds.  It takes a little over a month to train a fledgling and a little over 3 months to train an older bird.  Most of the training is to teach them to kill but not eat the prey.  During hunting season, they feed the eagles washed cow lungs.  This is to keep them healthy, but hungry enough to hunt and come home for more food.  During the off season, they feed them rabbit.  Mongolians do not eat rabbit.  They only use female eagles for hunting because they're larger and stronger than the males.  They generally keep them for 6 or 7 years before releasing them in the wild again so they can breed and keep the species promulgating.  Sometimes, they will have an especially good hunter, and they will keep her longer, sometimes up to 13 years.  The tradition of eagle hunting is passed down based on interest, not based on birth order, and no descendants are required or pressured to take up the sport.  Recently, women have started entering the field, but Leikham is not a fan of that practice.

As is the practice in Mongolia, when visitors come, they put out food.  Most of this spread was candy and the Aaruul, a fermented yogurt made from some type of milk curds (cow, yak, camel, or goat).  He also had milk tea, which was yak milk and tea powder.  I thought that was quite good.

He also showed us many of the awards he has won for horse racing and eagle hunting (mostly on the walls) as well as the coats and hats he has made from the hides of animals, mostly fox legs.  They may not eat rabbits, but they do eat fox, and while I was never clear what they do with the rest of the fox hide, I'm sure it gets used.  These people are very thrifty.  Not much goes to waste.  The fox leg pelt is used in his coats and hats because that's the softest part of the pelt.

The inner lining of this coat took the fur of the legs of 30 foxes.  It's one of his most prized possessions.

This coat and hat are made of wolf, an animal too large to be taken by an eagle.

After talking and learning, we went outside and met Ana, his current eagle, with whom he is very happy.  She's a very sweet girl, and we even got to hold and pose with her wearing the fox coat.

As we drove back to Khovd, we drove through a short-lived but significant snow storm.  Still not really enough to put much on the ground, but it blew hard and obstructed visibility.  Didn't seem to faze our driver, though.  

When we got to Khovd, there were lights up all over town.  This is apparently the normal state of streets in Mongolian towns.

After dinner, we went to our rooms for a good night's sleep and a good shower.  Tomorrow, we leave for the snow leopard camp.  I won't have overnight electricity to use my CPAP, and we won't have showers for a while.